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Ripples #1042: Not Knowing!

1999-2019: Celebrating 20 Years of Ripples
Ripples #1042: Not Knowing!
May 13, 2019

PEBBLE
I don’t know what my path is yet. I’m just walking on it.
-Olivia Newton-John, shared by Holly in Phoenix, AZ

BOULDER
Sometimes you don’t need to have a Master Plan.
You can trust in your Not Knowing instead.
Sometimes you just need to take the next step.
A small step.
Into safety.
Or into the wilderness.
Trust.
Breathe.
The great Master Plan unfolds with each tiny step you take.
-Jeff Foster, shared by Lorene in North Royalton, OH

PONDER
The other day I was enjoying a “walk and chat” with a good friend as she was contemplating a potential job shift that seems intriguing but wasn’t previously on her Master Plan. The conversation led me to daydream about the vast number unplanned twists and turns in my life that seemed so arbitrary and incidental at the time and yet ultimately proved to be fortuitous. Many of the connections and opportunities I’ve so immensely enjoyed throughout my lifetime were borne out of chance meetings and happy accidents.

I’ve also done lots of dreaming and planning and goal setting, and there is enormous value in sketching out long term Master Plans since they can help us harness our precious time, energy and focus. Plans help move us forward! If they become too rigid or restrictive, though, Master Plans can get in the way, preventing us from pursuing deviations that seem like detours and yet could lead to unimaginably exciting new destinies we haven’t previously dared to dream.

If there are ways in which Not Knowing is present in your life and yet seems problematic or worrisome for you right now, invite yourself to linger in the unpredictable (and admittedly uncomfortable) zone of Not Knowing, trusting that a Master Plan will eventually come into being. Think of yourself as out for a meandering stroll, temporarily setting aside any usual preferences for specific, mapped out itineraries. Who knows where you’ll end up!

Of course I don’t know if this experimentation will ultimately prove helpful. Still, I can be okay with that Not Knowing. Can you?